page_title: 71st Tactical Missile Squadron
section_title: Pilot training
hierarchical_section_title: 71st Tactical Missile Squadron / History / Pilot training
caption_attribution_description: English: T-38A Supersonic Jet Trainer at Moody AFB, Georgia, 1964
context_page_description: The 71st Tactical Missile Squadron is an inactive United States Air Force unit. It was last assigned to the 485th Tactical Missile Wing at Florennes Air Base, Belgium, where it was inactivated on 30 September 1989 with the implementation of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty.
  The squadron was first activated as the 71st Bombardment Squadron in 1941 as the United States built up its military forces prior to World War II. Shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the squadron deployed to the Southwest Pacific Theater, participating in combat until V-J Day, moving forward from Australia to Okinawa. It earned four Distinguished Unit Citations for its actions during the war. The 71st moved to Japan as part of the occupation forces, although it was only partly manned and equipped for some of this time. The squadron was inactivated in 1949 as the Defense budget was reduced.
  The squadron was again activated in France in 1953, when it replaced an Air National Guard unit that had been mobilized for the Korean War and was being returned to state control.
context_section_description: The squadron was reactivated in August 1972 as the 71st Flying Training Squadron, when the 38th Wing replaced the 3640th Pilot Training Wing at Laredo Air Force Base, Texas.  The squadron operated Cessna T-37 Tweets in the primary phase of Undergraduate Pilot Training (UPT).  However, with the withdrawal of US forces from Vietnam, pilot training requirements of the Air Force were diminishing, and Laredo was scheduled to close. The squadron was inactivated along with the wing on 30 September 1973 as Laredo closed.
  However, the squadron's inactive period was short.  It was again activated when the 38th Wing replaced the 3550th Pilot Training Wing at Moody Air Force Base, Georgia on 1 December 1973.  At Moody, the squadron provided instruction in the basic phase of UPT with Northrop T-38 Talons. The Air Force's pilot requirements continued to drop, and the squadron ended operations in November 1975.  The squadron was inactivated on 1 December 1975 along with the 38th Wing when Moody became a tactical tighter base after the Vietnam War ended.
caption: T-38 at Moody AFB
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